JAMES to visit Utilita Arena in June
JAMES’ #1 ALBUM ‘YUMMY’ IS OUT NOW
UK ARENA TOUR IN JUNE
Released in April, James’ new album Yummy reached #1 in the UK Album Chart and is their first ever studio #1 album. The album is produced by Leo Abrahams (Jon Hopkins, Brian Eno, Jarvis Cocker, Imogen Heap and Regina Spektor) and mixed by Cenzo Townsend (Courteeners, The Specials, Everything Everything). The album’s artwork has been art directed and designed by Studio Fury, whose previous work include the campaign for the Rolling Stones’ latest album, ‘Hackney Diamonds’.
A quintessential James album, Yummy is comforting yet adventurous, electronic yet human, dark yet life-affirming, experimental yet familiar, heart-warming yet deeply introspective on both the personal and human scale. “You’d think I’d be wise from all these lives,” Tim jokes on ‘Rogue’ (referencing his experiences with past life regression therapy) but Yummy is as sage and worldly as modern rock gets. Its string-swept opener and calling card, ‘Is This Love’, for instance – a fine example of the album’s ability to subtly blend cutting edge synthetics into organic James anthems – is as complex a dissection of love in all its forms as has ever been put to tape. “Can you love more than one equally? Is love shaped by a screen, films that you’ve seen, peace of mind!” Tim sings, poring over the pain, heat, battle, distance, fear, release and endurance of this mercurial emotion, in pursuit of its point and purpose. “It’s about Eros,” he explains, “when love’s like a brick through a window and you’re terrified because it could bring the house down. A frighteningly alive state.”
Love engendered at the album’s core, Yummy then sets out to help us endure – nay, often appreciate – life’s many dilemmas. ‘Life’s a Fucking Miracle’, which Tim considers “one of the most joyful songs we’ve written in years, it ‘could be a queer dance anthem”, argueing that the most mundane fishbowl existence should be seized and celebrated. And ‘Better with You’, a celestial disco tune and “apocalypse romance”, suggests that even global Armageddon and the subsequent post-human regeneration of the planet would be beautiful to behold with the right person and a good view.
James perform an exclusive sold-out warm-up show at O2 Academy Bournemouth on 29th May – then head out on their biggest ever arena tour in June, including the new Co-op Live arena in Manchester and culminating at London’s 02 on 15th June, the first time the band have played the 20,000 capacity venue.
2024 ARENA TOUR DATES – WITH SPECIAL GUESTS RAZORLIGHT
Mon 03 June Aberdeen P&J Live
Wed 05 June Newcastle Utilita Arena
Fri 07 June Glasgow OVO Hydro
Sat 08 June Leeds First Direct Arena
Tue 11 June Cardiff Utilita Arena
Wed 12 June Birmingham Utilita Arena Birmingham
Fri 14 June Manchester Co-op Live
Sat 15 June London The O2
Yummy Track List
1. Is This Love
2. Life is a Fucking Miracle
3. Better With You 4. Stay
5. Shadow of a Giant
6. Way Over Your Head
7. Mobile God
8. Our World
9. Rogue
10. Hey 11. Butterfly
12. Folks
Also available is a 2CD Deluxe Edition of Yummy, the second CD of which is called Pudding and comprises of demos produced by the four songwriters in the band.
Buy and Stream Yummy here.